


Duties in Accounting

by lady_brontide



Category: The Borgias (Showtime TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 20:06:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17731781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_brontide/pseuds/lady_brontide
Summary: She's there, and that's enough to keep him sane.Taken from a scene Showtimes The Borgia's, Ascanio and Gabriella discuss the accounts of the Catholic church, and spend quality time in the bedroom.





	Duties in Accounting

**Author's Note:**

> *I hate the title, and am open to suggestions regarding changes.

The light played and danced on Gabriella’s hair. She lay fast asleep, curled around a pillow with her shift rucked up over her thighs. She looked so young to Ascanio. He could remember when they were children, when something like this would have been forbidden. He traced the curve of her elbow around the cushion to learn the shape even though he already knew it.

It wasn’t unheard of for cousins to marry or have torrid affairs. Their affair was gentler, built on years of friendship and familial affection. _Twice removed_ , he remembers telling the Holy Father when he had interrupted them. What an easy affair it had been to worm his way into her bed after that incident.

\-- _when they were ten and he was appointed to the church she had asked with teary eyes if he was allowed to love her anymore_ \--

Gabriella stirred in her sleep. Ascanio curled his body around hers. Generally he wouldn’t lay like this with her for fear of unsatisfied arousal as she slept. But the fire was dying in the hearth, and he wanted the warmth of another body.

* * *

Papal finances would be the death of him. One way or another, His Holiness would see him defrocked for the mess Cardinal Versucci had left the accounts in, he was sure of it. Ascanio was tempted to burn the entire book and start again but poor Burchart would likely collapse.

Ascanio heard the door open but didn’t turn. “Was I unclear when I said I was not to be disturbed?” he growled. His temper was foul from checking the books. Any servant in their right mind would stay far away.

“You’ll have to grant absolution for me then, Cousin,” a soft voice purred. Ascanio turned swiftly to see Gabriella removing her traveling cloak.

He smiled despite himself and went to her. “I thought you were in Milan.” Ascanio grasped her shoulders and exchanged a brief kiss with her. When they parted, Gabriella burst into giggles are embraced her cousin fully. “What are you doing in Rome, Gabriella Visconti?” he asked as he stroked her neck with one finger.

“I wanted to check on my tireless cousin, the noble Vice Chancellor. And inquire whether or not he wanted to take a break and have dinner with me?”

“And by _dinner_ we mean?” he asked raising his eyebrows. He and Gabriella had done an excellent job of keeping their affair a secret. She bit her lip teasingly.

“I mean,” she said whilst working on the top buttons of his cassock. “You are my oldest friend, and I’ve missed your companionship.” She smiled at him and continued her task. Ascanio kissed her temple and began undoing the elaborate mess of braids her hair was. He raked his fingers through the dark curls. Dark hair was Sforza hair, familial, familiar.  

“If I’d known you were coming I would have rid myself of these accounts books earlier today,” he commented.

“Shirking your papal duties?”

“Only for you,” he replied. Gabriella pushed the cassock from his shoulders. He helped push her gown off before drawing her hard against him. It had been too long. Her absence had been a harshly borne one. “And only for you do we break our vow of abstinence.” He kissed her gently and drew her to his bed.

“Then we must make our time worth it, Your Eminence,” she said while pushing him down and crawling into his lap. Ascanio ran his hands over her curves before releasing the ties of her shift. Her breasts still filled his hands perfectly. He ran his fingers over the plush curve while he kissed her collarbone. Gabriella pushed his shift over his shoulders to free him of it. Her hands were soothing as they ran through his hair.

“You are distracted,” she observed. Her breath hitched as he kneaded one breast. “Share it with me?”

“No. It’s boring and you’ll leave me,” he retorted. In a flash he’d turned Gabriella on her back.

She laughed and shuffled back toward the headboard. He followed leaving his shift discarded at the end of the bed. Her eyes swept over him. He smiled to himself.

“Then make it worth my time, cousin,” she insisted. He groaned into her mouth as she undid his braies.  

“Twice removed.”

“Ascanio.”

“Fine, let me talk finances then,” he said. He pulled Gabriella back onto his lap. She settled in with her shift around her waist and his hardness pressed against her soft heat. “The papal finances are nearly non-existent,” he whispered to her breast. Gabriella moved her hips against his. He wrapped his arms around her to still her and stroke wherever he could reach.

“And you would have them replenished by the cardinals,” she replied. He smiled against her throat. She was always clever.

“By the very consistory that elected our blessed pope. Any ideas?” He felt her hand guide him inside her.

“Would you count yourself among their number?” She rolled her hips in an easy glide years of practice had made possible. His breaths came harsher as her heat enveloped him.

“I would--see my finances be put to better use.” He put a hand behind him for leverage and pushed up into her. Her face went slack with pleasure.

“Perhaps a tithe--for--again--every disturbance of their sacred vows.” She rolled in time with his hips now. Their mouths locked briefly.

“You mean charge them for every transgression?” he breathed. He was close. He thumbed her center. “Like a whorehouse,” he whispered.

“Please, now,” she replied clinging to him. She reached her pleasure and he followed after, quite quickly. They sat there, tangled in each other, in the only other true comfort they could find in the world. Ascanio laid back, taking Gabriella with him. He gave a handful of gentle thrusts to draw out her pleasure before slipping out.

“Only for me?” she whispered in his ear.

“Only for you,” he answered. Their kiss was full of gratitude and sanity, things Ascanio hadn’t felt in a long time.

They arranged themselves under his covers with the fire burning strong in the hearth. Ascanio didn’t lay curled around her. Instead he stroked her hair and thought about her words. The “Whoremaster of Rome” might see merit in such a plan.

* * *

The Holy Father regarded him sternly for a moment before fidgeting with his crucifix a little. Ascanio could see him contemplating the idea. He knew the Pope would not be adverse to punishing the cardinals, as he was ought to do to keep them in their place, to keep them obedient to his every whim.

“Allow me to clarify,” he answered slowly. “You mean to impose a tithe, on those cardinals who make transgressions against their holy vows?”

“An anonymous tithe, Your Holiness. No one need ever know the identity of the donor. It would be a type of confession,” he answered readily. He and Gabriella spent hours (well, not _hours_ since they were actually rather busy during her stay) devising a way to outwit the cardinals and give the approach its best light. “It would also be good for the populace, Your Holiness. To see that even Princes of the church are not exempt from confession.”

His eyes shot to the Vice Chancellor. “You do not exempt yourself from this?”

“No, Holiness, in fact I will donate the first tithe to encourage the rest,” he replied. Borgia liked loyalty, and that he could provide, though only if necessary.

“Then by all means,” he answered. Alexander stood and patted Ascanio on the shoulder before meandering inside. “We knew making you a cardinal would be beneficial someday.”

“Of course, Holiness.” Ascanio added five ducats to his _tithe_ for rolling his eyes at the head of Christendom.

* * *

“Gabriella.” Ascanio called out when he returned home. His private home was modestly sized, but decorated according to the Milanese style suitable for a prince of Milan, the ancestral home. A housemaid popped around a corner, ready to take direction.

  
“Where is my cousin?”

“Lady Visconti is in the garden sir,” she replied. The stiff set of her shoulders, and small steps told Ascanio she was not telling the whole truth.

“Is there something else, Diana?” She took three long strides and privately told Ascanio that the lady had taken several copies of the papal accounts out of the library at noon and had not stopped examining them since. Cardinal Sforza paused, thanked his assistant for keeping track of the accounts, and handed off his crown, scrolls, and bag to Diana before proceeding into the garden.

  
Gabriella was dressed and sipped a glass of sweet wine when Ascanio found her. “You gave poor Diana a fright. No one is allowed in my study without explicit permission.” He popped into the chair next to her.

  
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize that discussing the papal accounts with your prick in me wasn’t explicit enough,” she said to her wine glass.   
He gagged on his.

  
“Anyway, I found the main discrepancy. It was three years back with Pope Innocent, bless his soul. Three cardinals, whose signatures do not appear, loaned themselves five thousand ducats each for an investment in…” she poked through her accrual of papers. “Venetian vineyards, which went sour, and not figuratively. They never repaid the loan and the papal bank has been functioning as if it never lost fifteen thousand ducats.”

Ascanio sighed heavily, and let his head fall back. “I loathe this position.”

Gabriella patted his knee.

* * *

Dinner was a quiet affair. They took their meals separately, Gabriella in the parlor with two other unmarried ladies she was friends with, and Ascanio in the garden. Diana hovered around refilling his glass, clearing plates, and making notations on the texts now and again before scuttling off to help the cook. Ascanio loved being surrounded by women. Because they were honest, worked harder, and thought shrewdly.   
  
Bedtime was another affair. Gabriella snuck into his room after the household had gone to sleep. The swish of her linen nightdress brushed Ascanio’s legs in front of his bedroom fire. 

“Are you too tired?” she asked before sliding sideways onto his lap.

  
Ascanio wrapped his arms around her. “No, just thinking. Did you have a nice day here alone?” he asked.

“I did. Your housemaid was very cross at me for stealing into your office. Are you fucking her?”

  
“I told you,” he said playfully, “only for you do we break our vow of abstinence. Diana is invaluable to me. She has a head for everything, and learns quickly, and is undoubtedly loyal.”   


“Good. It is hard to come by true friends in this wretched city.”   


They sat companionably by the fire for a bit before Gabriella began kissing his ear and neck.

“Earlier when you said you loathe this position, you didn’t mean the one where I-”

“No. Never.”

“And that is because-”

“I adore a woman who is brilliant and not afraid of her own body.”

“So I should do this-” her hand rolled over his loins. 

“Yes please,” he murmured.  

~fin~

  



End file.
